mm-Wave channel estimation with accelerated gradient descent algorithms

The availability of millimeter wave (mm-Wave) band in conjunction with massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology is expected to boost the data rates of the fifth-generation (5G) cellular systems. However, in order to achieve high spectral efficiencies, an accurate channel estimate is required, which is a challenging task in massive MIMO. By exploiting the small number of paths that characterize the mm-Wave channel, the estimation problem can be solved by compressed-sensing (CS) techniques. In this paper, we propose a novel CS channel estimation method based on the accelerated gradient descent with adaptive restart (AGDAR) algorithm exploiting a ℓ1-norm approximation of the sparsity constraint. Moreover, a modified re-weighted compressed-sensing (RCS) technique is considered that iterates AGDAR using a weighted version of the ℓ1-norm term, where weights are adapted at each iteration. We also discuss the impact of cell sectorization and tracking on the channel estimation algorithm. We compare the proposed solutions with existing channel estimations with an extensive simulation campaign on downlink third-generation partnership project (3GPP) channel models.